Monday, 30 December 2013

Since the New Year starts with a countdown, lets count the minutes it takes to complete your project.

OPTIONAL: If you can do it in 10 minutes or less, you can play at 10 Minute Craft Dash too!

This is the card that I had in mind when I originally read the challenge, especially the ten minute part. I am a notoriously slow crafter sometimes, so the challenge of making a card in 10 minutes can seem daunting, but this came together so quickly. I die cut my cardstock using my silhouette as I knew I wanted the gold glitter to show through, but I also wanted to keep in clean and simple. I mounted the die cut panel with foam tape, along with the small middles to the letters and it was done. My time came out at 8.49!

I was then left with all the die cut letters and another piece of gold glitter card, so this is what I did and it took a lot more than 10 minutes!

I individually pierced the tops of most of the letters, stuck on small foam pads and strung them with gold thread, finishing it off with a sequin at each end. I then took the pad off each letter and individually placed them one by one to get the right banner shape. I glued the threads to the inside of the card and it was finished!

I stamped the medallions using watermark ink onto turquoise vellum and liberally added perfect pearls in turquoise, berry twist and forever purple then embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder. Unfortunately when I stitched it to the base if rubbed some of the pearls off the edges but it's not too noticeable.

What about the picture quality, huh? it's a big improvement on my usual offering. I was a lucky girl and Santa bought me some lights to go along with the little light cube I got a couple of years ago, I know I have quite a way to go but I was relieved that I am able to show almost true to life colours in my pictures at last :)

For the final blog hop of the year, this month's theme at Papertrey Ink is Tied Up With String. I thought I would share this card that I have kinda fallen in love with, once all the pieces are die cut it's relatively quick to pull together.

This has to be my favourite alphabet set, although I love my silhouette and the freedom it gives i'm still a die hard die girl. The cloud die is new to me and I have such a soft spot for the little baby clothes, look at those adorable socks!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are enjoying a relaxing Boxing Day :)

Monday, 23 December 2013

I will confess that I made these last minute last Christmas and they helped get me out of a pickle! I had been asked to make some small boxes for some ornaments and these came together so quickly using my silhouette, this cut file and Waltzingmouse Stamps Nordic Winter.

I also had a gift card that I wanted to dress up. I used this cut file for the envelope.

Thursday, 14 November 2013

I have a goal to use up all of the scraps that I have, but I just seem to make more! With that in mind I have set myself a 'Bits and Pieces' challenge to try to use up all the scraps created when making a project. You can see my first 2 posts here and here.

I recently made some love cupcakes to take to work for my fellow co-workers and used my Silhouette to cut out all of the hearts for the toppers that I needed.

I was left with two 8 x 11.5 sheets of heart negatives, I paired this with a sheet of my favourite Crate Paper floral - Emma's Shop, Fabrics and managed to come up with 6 cards that came together really easily.

This is the card I made that created the 'scraps'

It came together whilst playing around with some embellishments on my desk, I really like it, I should have photographed it against a darker background so you could see the edge scallops better. The die cut sentiment is by My Minds Eye.

The following cards were all made using the heart die cut and floral paper scraps. I also used my new Wplus9 basic banners stamp set and die for the sentiment

Shhh, you didn't see the wonky stamping, Ok?

I added some touches of glitter paper, washi tape and some simple embellishments and had fun with it, I am also pleased that I have filled up my stash of birthday cards!

Now, if only I could bring myself to throw away the pieces smaller that 4x4 inches I would really make a dent in the pile!

Have a great weekend.
Ang.

PS - You can also see how I created this wreath using scraps no larger than 3x3.

Saturday, 9 November 2013

If you are a papercrafter, there is no doubt that you will have heard of the wonderful Cath Edvalson, Trends Editor at Paper Crafts Magazine. Sadly, Cath has announced that she will be leaving Paper Crafts for pastures new. To thank Cath for all her hard work and inspiration, some lovely ladies have put together a *ginormous* blog hop as a way for paper crafters around the world to share their thanks and love for Cath by producing a card, either to send to Cath or to celebrate all things Moxie Fab, you can see the blog hop post here.

I have been an avid reader of the Moxie Fab World blog for a long time and will be sad to not share the wonderful prompts and inspiration each week. Here is my card

I decided to work with my current favourite stamping set (Fresh Cut Florals, Wplus9) and I love how it turned out, I based it on my love of blue delft porcelain. I don't have too many good luck sentiments but I love the 'have a lovely day' sentiment which can be used for so many different occasions and I thought it was just perfect for this card.

I have had the perforated paper for a few years, and I like how it added texture to the background, whilst still being flat and easy for posting. I raised some of the flowers on foam pads for interest and kept the rest of the card very clean and simple. Now to pop it in the post so it can wing it's way to Cath via the lovely Teri Anderson.

If you have just stopped by on your way around the hop, you may have come from the lovely;

you can use the inlinkz list below to see all of the (nearly 300!) blog hop participants. Thank you so much for stopping by and if you would like to make a card to share with Cath, why not add one to this post.

Thank you Cath for 8 1/2 years of inspiration and encouragement for crafters eveywhere! Wishing you lots of luck, sunshine and rainbows!
Ang x

Monday, 4 November 2013

Since I have started working in an office there are lots of opportunities to make sweet treats for my colleagues. I started with these bags this Valentines Day and had a last minute idea to make Halloween treat bags, it started out as fun, but by 2.30am I was definitely flagging!

I die cut the pumpkins and the gravestones using my silhouette (I started out writing RIP on the stones but chose to go with a more cheerier 'Boo!') but together it just wasn't enough and I was running out of time. I had to pop to the local supermarket and lo and behold I found a set of 50 witches for 99p, originally they make up a game much like an Easter egg hunt, but you have to find the witch with orange stars on her dress, when dressed up together with the other two die cuts they made a 'bewitching' *groan* label.

I used Wilton clear party bags, filled them with various sweeties and tied them with some tinsel or curling ribbon. The wraps around the centre were from the same supermarket as the witches and were meant to make paper chains. I wish I had picked up more because I made a lot more bags than originally planned!

Here they are ready to go in my basket. I wish I had used a more halloweeny fabric though.

I needed a quick way to adhere so many labels together and it had to be quick drying glue, my hot glue gun wasn't the greatest idea so I went with my Tiny Attacher, it didn't detract from the total look, besides, I don't think the recipients were looking that closely ;)

I overfilled one bag for my friend's little boy and took a bit more time with his tag, I backed the pumpkin with black card stock, die cut and glittered his name, used the 'fancy' witch from the pack of witches and finished her off with some oogly googly eyes.

I was so pleased to hear that it brightened so many people's day, however I think I may have to put a bit more planning into it if I am going to make some for Christmas!

Monday, 28 October 2013

and that spells disaster when photographing my cards. It's dark when I leave for work in the morning and it's dark when I get home so I am reduced to taking pictures with a daylight lamp, angle poise lamp and overhead light. Now, most people can make that combination work, me? I am so technically challenged that I just can't get it right. I have updated my blog hop post here with *marginally* better photos than before, however I need to figure out how to improve the quality of my photographs in winter!

Here are a couple of cards that I made recently for a submission call that didn't make the grade!

Lots of gold glitter (which got everywhere!) and my newest favourite sentiment set, Scrolling Script along with the Mat Stack 7 die. I had some left over pleated crepe ribbon from another project which I added for a bit of dimension, I like to think that this might be suitable for an older person's birthday.

I went simple with this card, adding texture with the polka dot embossing folder. I die cut an aperture in the card with Mat Stack 7 dies and mounted the sentiment on acetate to give it a floating look. I like how it looks like a silver ring with a big diamond, if I swap out the sentiment it might be nice for an engagement card.

On a later shift all this week which wreaks havoc with my crafting time, I hope to get started on some more Christmas projects this week.

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Edited 28th October.
I have replaced the old photos with marginally better quality ones, winter time light is my kryptonite!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I apologise for the truly horrendous quality photo's, it's 1am and I have only just finished my tags for the Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop. I will take better quality pictures in the morning. In the meantime, here is what I came up with.

This one is my favourite, I just love candy canes, I would love to buy more stamps sets of that theme as I really don't own that many Christmas stamp sets.

I liked how the holiday words look when stamped in this way, I am going to try this in a traditional colour scheme and then make another in pink, aqua and purple. Who doesn't love jingle bells?

I punched these leaves with my Martha Stewart punch ages ago from all my scraps and have been waiting for just the right project. I need to use seed beads on projects more often as I have thousands of them.

I really like the Snowflake Flurries stamp set and dies, they aren't too 'christmassy' and can even be used on birthday cards.

Mr Snowman didn't quite come out how I wanted, there is too much white space for my liking.

At least it means I have 5 pretty tags to use when wrapping gifts and they will add that extra special touch.

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

I have been putting off the dreaded 'c' word for some time, but I have finally decided to take the plunge and make my first Christmas card of 2013. I have been admiring the new Wplus9 Merry and Bright stamp set, a Christmas companion to Fresh Cut Florals, and decided that I would try and recreate my own festive card using Fresh Cut Florals and here is the result.

The card base is Papertrey Ink ripe avocado, I die cut and embossed a panel of white card and sewed it to the base, stamped some die cut berries and leaves using pure poppy, ripe avocado and simply chartreuse and adhered them in a circle using foam pads. The small doily is by My Favourite Things and the sentiment is from PTI Tag It's #8. I had fun making the wreath hanger and bow from washi tape. I was slow to pick up on the washi tape craze but find myself using it more and more, I'm worried that I will amass a large collection as I have almost 20 rolls already (That's nothing, have you seen this?)

Well, I'm going back to making some holiday tags for the PTI blog hop :)
Ang x

Monday, 14 October 2013

I really do love Fresh Cut Florals stamps and dies from Wplus9, I think it may even be in my top 3 of all time. Unfortunately for you, it means you'll be seeing it more than a few times here over the next few months and for that I am sorry*

I love the starkness of black and grey paired with bright florals, and I already had the background strips cut so it was pretty easy to pull together.

I had enough stamped flowers and strips left over to make a coordinating tag too. I am currently trying to make a dent in my pile of 'scraps' so every time I make a card I have to use up all the remaining leftovers on another card or tag before I allow myself to move on. I think I made 6 in this manner over the weekend but I'll share them in another post.

Sunday, 6 October 2013

I know, silly title, but it's the best I can come up with this Sunday afternoon! September was a busy month for birthdays, my sweet nephew, my mother-in-law and my lovely, wonderful Mum.

This was a card that I just kept adding to, sometimes I need to learn when to say stop! I had a play with my new fresh cut florals stamp set and dies from Wplus9, they are so beautiful and so much fun to play with.

This is the card that I made for my mother-in-law

Florals again, quite predictable from me, this time I used Cutting Garden stamps and lots of patience cutting them all out :)

Thursday, 12 September 2013

Where does the time go? Just popping in with a quick card.....ha! this card was anything but quick!

I found that I had a number of iridescent products twinkling at me in my craft room so I had to put them all together on this card for my niece's 12th birthday. I started with a rectangle of iridescent card which I then (carefully mind!) covered with sequins, I then wrapped around some ribbon and iridescent film and topped it with a die cut circle and glittery American Crafts thickers. I hope she likes it :)

Sunday, 25 August 2013

I stamped a half panel of card using the mini blooms stamp set in the ink colours provided above, once that was done I cut the panel into strips and run the strips through my xyron and covered them in prisma glitter and adhered to the card with phone pads. It came out much better that expected and it keeps catching my eye as it sits on my desk in the sun :)

This was a nice easy challenge to get started, choose a colour scheme and a sketch to make a nice quick card. I popped the stamped buttons up with foam pads, if I had more time I would have added thread to the middles as i'm not keen on threadless buttons! I added a sparkly panel and stamped the sentiment in co-ordinating ink.

I always have tea stained cotton seam binding ribbon on hand as it is the most popular item in my Etsy store. I stamped the ribbon with berry sorbet and spring moss using the Stitches and Swirls stamp set, unfortunately it bled quite badly, I forgot that I usually stamp with Staz-On on ribbon :( I stamped the background and coloured it with promarkers, adding a pin and stamped tag. There should be pearls in the centres of the flowers, I've just realised I forgot them!

So, this card was the hardest for me and it's not exactly my best :( I didn't have any paperclay as was suggested so I used fimo air. I rolled out the clay and laid fillable frames #4 die on the top and pressed lightly, I then removed the die and cut round the indentation with a craft knife, stamped the flowers in each corner and the word birthday in the middle, once dry it was given a couple of coats of gesso.

My intention was to rub pink paint over the whole label and then wipe it off leaving the paint in the indentations, that did NOT work! I have repainted this darn thing so many times and had to resort to painting all the details with some diluted raspberry fizz ink, yes, that's why the word looks wonky! I adhered it to my prepared panel using super tacky glue. The flowers and leaved were stamped then quickly water coloured.

I knew I wanted a blue background but unfortunately do not own any Hawaiian shores cardstock, so I decided to spray my own! I mixed up a mist using Hawaiian shores and turquoise perfect pearls and sprayed this over Lace Bouquet that has been embossed with white embossing powder. I die cut the banner from Stitched Sentiments and stamped the sentiment with coordinating ink. In a couple of days I think i will go back to this card and add a frame of white stitching as I feel it needs that little extra something.

I took my cues from the card that Nichole created for this challenge. I stamped with daydreamer (my favourite!) then added dot of PVA glue over every large stamped dot and covered it all with table salt and let it dry for 2 hours. Once dry I brushed off the salt and used water colours to each salted dot and left to dry, I then finished it off with a stamped sentiment from scrolling script and a doodled border. It was an interesting technique but a bit too messy for me!

I used this card by Debbie Olson as a rough sketch of what I wanted to do. Fortunately I had already stamped and coloured the image so it was easy to put together. I used a gallon of red, a quart of green and a pint of yellow! Out of all the cards I have made for this challenge, this is my husband's favourite, but I think that's because he can be a glutton when it comes to strawberries!

This is my favourite as it came out just how I wanted! I die cut 2 large clouds from white shrink plastic, punched a hole near the top and shrunk it with my heat gun, painted it with glitter and let it dry overnight. I die cut a partial cloud from my glitter card panel then stitched it to the card base, along with a strip of turquoise vellum that had been stamped and embossed with my sentiment, I then die cut another cloud and embossed it with an embossing folder, I attached the clouds and a small silver star to each earring base and lightly adhered the finished earrings to the back of the cloud before adhering to my card base.

It needed an little extra something so I die cut another cloud from shrink plastic, shrank it and glued it near the top right. I love, love, love it! I don't want to give it away but I did make it with a special person in mind so I'll have to part with it soon.

This was a fun foray into scratch and sniff! I used to love scratch and sniff stickers as a child, the ones that stand out the most were the Garfield stickers that smelt of lasagne! I won't go into detail on the process as this video explains it all perfectly. I chose strawberry for mine and stamped extra strawberries for myself and my husband to try so we didn't ruin the card and we were both amazed that the process works so well! I can't wait to experiment with different scents.

If you follow the link you will see the basic supplies that you were allowed to use for this challenge. I used the headline alphabet stamps and dies for the words and had to go through my card stash for card that resembled the colours required and added them as a simple stripe with a glitter stripe to finish it off.

The final challenge was to create a glittered embellishment. I cut strips of coloured card and glued them to some plain paper, i then covered that with prisma glitter and die cut the word hello. I handcut a speech bubble and added faux stitching around the edges, i then stamped the word friend using the wonderful words set of stamps and popped up the word hello using foam dots. Once this was adhered to the card I used a hole punch on the striped scraps and added the 3 glittery dots.

*Phew* I am tired from all that creating, I have never, ever completed 10 cards in one weekend before (regular readers will know about my propensity to procrastinate) and I am not sure I will again for a little while, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenges and look forward to participating next year.

Please visit Nichole's blog to see all the other fantastic entries made by cardmakers all over the world!